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New funding to increase mental health support for veterans


Paul Hayes


5/11/2018 2:09:55 PM

The Federal Government has announced it will commit $100,000 for a veteran mental health outreach pilot project.

Part of the Government funding will go towards developing guidelines for the treatment of PTSD, which is particularly prevalent among veterans. (Image: CPL Kyle Genner)
Part of the Government funding will go towards developing guidelines for the treatment of PTSD, which is particularly prevalent among veterans. (Image: CPL Kyle Genner)

Australia’s returning servicemen and women are among the country’s most vulnerable people when it comes to issues of mental health and suicide.
 
‘At home I found it hard to reconnect with [my wife] and I found myself yearning to be back in Afghanistan,’ Queensland MP Brent Mickelberg said earlier this year during his maiden speech in Parliament.
 
‘Although I was living with someone who loved and cared for me, I often felt isolated and alone. The images kept returning to me and my anger grew as I suffered nightmares.
 
‘Driving was one of the hardest things to adapt to as I was constantly scanning for threats, and any trip was a battle to contain my aggression.’
 
The Federal Government this week announced it will fund new initiatives designed to ‘improve the treatment and management of mental health concerns among Australia’s servicemen and women’.
 
‘We will commit $100,000 for a veteran mental health outreach pilot project to pull together the available information about a new way to provide specialised home-based healthcare for veterans and their families,’ Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said.
 
‘Our younger veterans who suffer mental health conditions can experience social or geographic isolation so this project will look at how health providers can better “reach out” and provide home-based services.’
 
The project will be run by the Remembrance Foundation.
 
In addition, Phoenix Australia will receive funding of $650,000 to develop up-to-date clinical guidelines for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
 
‘[PTSD] is particularly prevalent among veterans and tragically has a high association with suicide,’ Minister Hunt said.
 
‘It is time to incorporate new research and the latest information so our health professionals have the tools they need to prevent, intervene early and treat PTSD.’



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